Going with 6-8; enough to avoid any realistic chance of moving up to grab a top QB. If Rosen starts and makes good progress it won't be all that bad. If it's mostly Fitzmagic playing, then a lost season in the search for a QB.
I was going to say 6, but 6-8 felt aggressive so I went with 3-5. I do think we will not be blown out regularly, but we just dont have the horses to make close games Ws. Hopefully we win one early to avoid shades of our near 0-16 catastrophe.
I'm going with six or seven, based largely on the fact that the home schedule looks to be extremely favorable. I'm calling 6-2 at home and 1-7 on the road.
Way too early for an educated guess, but as of today I'm thinking 2 or 3 wins. Really hoping I'm wrong.
I've honestly never gone into a season thinking that the team would win fewer than five or six games, and I truly think that in retrospect, 2004 was the only season that the team started Week 1 with a roster that wasn't good enough to get to that point. 2007 was an injury plagued disaster where everything that could go wrong did, but at the start of the year, I think that every single team from 2005-2018 was a 6-10 win calibre club. Never better, never worse, always in the middle.
It’s going to come down to how well Flores can build the OL and DL. The other big question mark is how will the backups play when injury strikes. I like our skill position groups, apart from the huge question mark at QB. I don’t think we have much chance of getting either line to “good”. That caps us at no better than 8-8. I am hopeful that the coaching staff will be able to get better than advertised performance from the OL and DL, but that’s moving the needle from “horrible” to “barely adequate”. Our QB situation is that we don’t have a player on the roster who can reliably overcome the problems created by poor line play. I get us to 6-8 wins if Brian Flores can coach up the lines and the backups. From what I’ve seen so far that looks a decent bet. However if I’m wrong on this then an ugly 3-5 win season will be upon us.
I'm thinking 8-8. Defense is going to be improved, QB is a question mark but it has to be better than that clown show last season. This year we have a for real dedicated OC. Let's do this again after pre-season.
Really, the only thing that would change my opinion after the preseason would be signifigant injuries. But I always expect a lot from the offense, and I know that many people don't.
I expect the offense to be excellent each year as well since we have one of the top receiving corps in the league. Everything comes back to the offensive line though and our colossal failures over the past decade plus. The one wildcard here is our new offensive line coach- I know nothing about him or his resume. So I guess there's a chance we can over-achieve with less this season...I'm just not expecting it since we've had such horrible leadership & injuries on the line for so long.
I'm not expecting the OL to be good. If we can achieve mediocre there, it will be an accomplishment. But what I am hoping for is that the offense will then focus on what they are able to do, such as the quick passing game and trying to move down the field 10 yards at a time, rather than continually putting themselves in poor positions like under Gase, because he was so determined to make his way work that it was all that seemingly mattered. If the offense takes the ball at the 25, gets a couple of first downs after running 8 to 10 plays, and then punts and puts the other team in poor field position after eating some clock, I can be fine with that. If they gradually drive down the field and kick some field goals, I'll be really happy. Its the never ending 3-and-outs that make me pull my hair out.
Average quarterback play suggests 8-8, while a below average pass defense accounts for two to three losses from there. 5-11/6-10
I feel at a minimum we win 6 to 8 games. Clearly, it is hard to predict how well the new coaching staff will perform but I feel with their background and experience we are not facing any kind of disaster. The QB situation is at least solid and stable. It may even improve if Rosen grows into the system and performs to his best ability. I anticipate the biggest overall improvements may be on our defense, mostly due to improved coaching. If (there is that big word, if) the defense plays as well as I think it will and the coaching shows the effectiveness that their experience implies and we don't fall down at QB then predicting a 6 to 8 win season represents the worst we will do. If the offense produces a consistent performance and the coaches game plans are even partially effective I can see us winning up to 10 games. If (there is that word again) the QB play takes a big step forward along with an improved defense and offense then we should make the playoffs and win at least one playoff game. My biggest worry that the other two teams in the division not named the Patriots improve the way I suspect they will, then our most difficult games will be in the division and our play against the division teams is will have a the most effect on how well we do this season. It would be fool hardy to discount the division competition this year. It is likely to be the biggest problem we face.
I appreciate your optimism! Though I personally tend to look for best case scenarios going into the season myself, my personal feelings of six or seven wins are largely based on what I perceive as a very manageable home slate. Last year's defense gave up 145 yards on the ground per game. I'm hopeful that the new staff can improve that number somewhat with better schemes, play calls, and hands on coaching with the players, I'm not expecting to make a big jump up from 31st in the league. It would take allowing more than 25 yards per game fewer just to be ranked 20th last year. And while we're all happy to have our defense picking off as many passes as they did last year, expecting them to maintain an interception rate of 4.1% (#2 in the league) is probably asking too much. And if you cut those interceptions in half to a league average rate, the passer rating allowed jumps from 94.1 (16th) all the way up to 101.4 (which would be 30th). So much of the success that the defense had under Gase was based almost solely upon creating turnover at just the right time. Very little was about stopping the other team through traditional means, limiting damage and forcing punts. In other words, its worse than it looks at first glace on paper, and will likely take some time (multiple years) to sort out.
Good information, but I don't know to what extent it will carry into this year. I see a potentially strong team with coaching as the biggest question mark but with a potential upside, especially with the new DC. I also see equal to better QB play as a potential for this years team. I'm not so sure about how manageable this season will be with apparent growth and improvement going on with our division rivals. I think it will take 5 or 6 games to get established and after that, good or bad, the team we see will be the team we have for the rest of the year.